The present invention relates to undersea and other high temperature and high pressure environment connectors and specifically to apparatus for equalizing the pressure between an interior chamber of the connector and the outside environment in which the connector is placed.
The inaccessibility and expense of changing or repairing deep ocean or down-hole pump electrical connectors has mandated that such connectors be extremely reliable even though operating in a hostile environment with cathodic corrosive effects and extreme pressures.
Connectors used in high temperature or high pressure environments often include an interior closed chamber filled with non-conductive fluid wherein connection of individual wires in a cable are made either to a male or female connector insert. The connector end of the insert extends from the interior chamber of the connector assembly and is available for connection to a cooperating connector assembly. It is recognized that if the pressure in the interior chamber fluid is equalized with the pressure of the environment in which the connector is placed, the chances of failure of the connector due to pressure differentials will be greatly reduced.
Heretofore, various mechanisms have been used to achieve such pressure equalization. For example, in some connectors the interior chamber is pre-pressurized to a pressure which approximates the pressure of the environment in which the connector will actually be used. However, large pressure differentials will still exist when the connector is not in its operating environment such as before installation. Plungers and various other complex mechanical mechanisms have also been used to enable pressure of the interior chamber to be continuously varied to match the external pressure of the environment. However, the complexity and expense of such mechanisms have limited their applicability to only the largest connector assemblies and even then only where the added expense could be justified. Consequently pressure equalization mechanisms for small sized, deep ocean connectors or less expensive connectors have not heretofore been possible.
Previous connectors solved this problem by providing a pressure compensation mechanism for use particularly in deep sea or down-hole pump connector assemblies which allow the interior chamber of the connector to always be at the same pressure as the external environment while still maintaining the integrity of the non-electrically conducting fluid in the interior of the chamber. Previous apparatus achieved this result through the use of an elastomeric boot stretched clamped between two mating sleeves and the interior housing surface of the chamber. The elastomeric boot was used to divide the chamber into an interior region inside the boot and an exterior region radially between the boot and the interior housing surface of the chamber. The chamber housing was then provided with a pressure equalizing orifice whereby the environment outside the chamber housing communicated with the pressure compensation mechanism so that the incompressible fluid confined in the interior region of the chamber will be at the same pressure as the environment outside the connector.
However, the use of an elastomeric boot made insertion of the boot into the chamber interior difficult because the boot would catch on the chamber interior creating an incomplete seal between the interior of the chamber and the mating sleeves, thus allowing fluids from the environment outside the connector to enter into the interior region inside the boot. Further, over time the elastomeric boot would deteriorate causing the boot material to stick to the interior region of the chamber. This made removal of the boot difficult. Additionally, in previous pressure compensation mechanisms the boot was bonded to the mating sleeves with an adhesive. This requirement limited the available materials for the boot and the mating sleeves to materials capable of being bonded with a corrosive resistant adhesive.
The present invention solves these problems by providing a perforated sealing sleeve inserted between the interior chamber housing and the elastomeric boot. The perforated sealing sleeve maintains a slight radially directed compression force on the boot, thus sealing the boot to the mating sleeves without the use of an adhesive. This allows the boot and the mating sleeves to be made with exotic materials capable of withstanding highly corrosive environments. The perforated sealing sleeve also provides for convenient assembly and disassembly of the connector because the smooth surface of the sealing sleeve slides easily into and out of the interior of the chamber housing.